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Man in custody after hotel standoff

By Grant Welker, gwelker@lowellsun.com

Updated:
02/15/2013 07:34:01 AM EST

NASHUA -- A man was taken into custody at the Radisson Hotel off Spit Brook Road following an hours-long standoff with about a dozen police officers armed with semiautomatic guns and wearing full-body protective suits.

The man, who police did not name late Thursday night, was taken out of the hotel apparently unharmed shortly before 11 p.m. A Nashua bomb squad truck with seven armed officers inside drove to the rear of the building, which was blocked off by police, and about 10 shots of some kind could be heard coming from the rear minutes before the man was taken into custody. A driveway to the back of the hotel was blocked by police.

The hotel was never evacuated except for the fourth floor, where the man was holed up in his hotel room. Guests continued entering and exiting the hotel normally.

Police on the scene would not comment, and no one was available later in the night to offer details, a Nashua dispatcher said. Hotel management also declined comment.

A couple that was staying on the fourth floor said officers knocked on their door at around 4 p.m. and told them they had to leave their room within minutes because of an emergency, which they did not specify. Armed officers could be seen down the hallway, said Jordan McNally of Vermont, who was napping in her hotel room with her boyfriend and infant.

"We were told, 'it's an emergency, it's being taken care of,'" she said.

They were given only minutes to get dressed and leave, Antonio Robinson said.

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